The short answer, plus the math almost nobody runs if you already get paid with Zelle or cash: 8 out of 10 customers leave a tip when they pay by card.
This is the question we get most: you built the quote, you hit send, and the app asks you to activate Cobros before it will go out. Here is why, and the part most people do not see coming.
The short answer
The invoice the app sends is not an image or a PDF. It is an invoice with a pay button: your customer opens it, sees the breakdown of the job, and pays with their card right there.
For that button to work there has to be an account to send the money to. That is what activating Cobros is. Without it the invoice would have nowhere to deposit, and it would just be a message asking for money.
"But I already get paid with Zelle or cash"
That is what most people tell us, and it is fair. Zelle works, it is free, and the money arrives fast. Nobody is telling you that you are doing it wrong.
But there is one thing Zelle and cash do not do, and it is the one that changes your number at the end of the month.
Zelle never asks your customer for a tip
When your customer pays by card through the app, the tip screen comes up before they confirm. You do not ask for it, you do not have to say anything awkward. It just appears.
Here is what actually happens on real payments in the app:
- 8 out of 10 customers leave a tip when they pay by card
- When they do, it averages $31
- You never had to ask for it once
With Zelle that screen does not exist. With cash it does not either. The customer pays what the quote says and that is it. It is not that they are cheap, it is that nobody asked them.
The math, with real numbers
Take a $230 job, which is roughly the average in the app. Same job, same customer, two ways to collect:
With Zelle or cash
- Job
- $230.00
- Tip
- $0.00
- Fee
- $0.00
With Cobros
- Job
- $230.00
- Tip
- +$31.00
- Fee
- -$9.69
That is about $21 more on the same job, after the fee. If you do 8 cleanings a month, that is around $170 extra you were not seeing before.
And here is the part that matters: the tip does not come out of your pocket and it does not make your service more expensive. The customer adds it on top of your price, because they were asked.
What else changes
The tip is the most noticeable part, but it is not the only one:
| Zelle | Cash | Cobros | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asks your customer for a tip | |||
| Invoice with your name and logo | |||
| Customer gets a receipt | |||
| Pays with a credit card | |||
| Can pay without you being there | |||
| Leaves a record for your taxes | Partly | ||
| Lands in your bank account |
The invoice part is not a small detail. Sending a text that says "that will be $230, Zelle it to me" is one thing. Having a proper invoice arrive with your name, a breakdown of the work you did and a button to pay is another. It looks like a business, not a favor.
And it saves you the most uncomfortable part: texting a customer days later to remind them to pay you.
What if my customer prefers Zelle or cash?
Keep getting paid that way whenever you want. Activating Cobros does not lock you into anything: it is one more option, not a replacement. You can send app invoices to the customers who pay by card and keep taking cash from the ones who always pay that way.
What we would suggest is trying it on your next few jobs. If a tip shows up on 8 out of 10 that was never arriving before, the question answers itself.
